“Eyes,” Candice finished for her. “Thousands of them.”
12:34 PM
Thousands of small spherical objects were now bubbling along the top of Nanosalve lake like ducks at a fairground. Ruby couldn’t believe what she was seeing, didn’t want to believe that the pool beneath their feet was filled with thousands of eyes. The black Nanosalve coated and buoyed them. Something in the pool was causing a disturbance as they moved and bumped against each other. They seemed to be grouped in clusters, caught around central posts. Ruby could see a few connections joining the eyes’ optic nerves to blue globes larger than footballs that pulsed with an inner glow.
Transfixed by the sight, Ruby didn’t notice that Devan had come to stand by her and take in the view. “It’s fantastic isn’t it?” he said.
“Horrific,” Ruby replied. “What are you doing with them? Where did you even get them? There’s so many.”
Candice brushed against Ruby’s shoulder as she came to stand by her. “Anthology Storage.”
“You’ve been stealing them from the remnant vaults?”
“So judgemental. You don’t yet understand what you’re looking at.”
Ruby saw the neural connection relays, the eyes, the Nanosalve. “You’re sustaining remnants. Using technology to keep them viable for longer. But why connect them like that? How can you get anything meaningful from them?”
“We’re way beyond using remnants to solve murders. That was only ever a side-project—never the driving force of the remnant project. It merely served as a way for us to develop the technology without arousing suspicion.”
“Looks like we’ve good reason to be suspicious,” Ruby said. “When we came in here, you said it was a machine.”
“It is, all of this. It’s the Infinity Mainframe. We built it.”
Milford interjected, “Not sure you did much building.”
Devan shot him a withering look. “We designed it together.”
“I designed it,” Milford said. The others turned to look at him. He still had a tool in his hand and was poking around under one of the control panels. “It uses remnants to simulate neural networks. Connecting them like this ensures stability and a large enough field strength to allow us to add connections without disturbing that field.”
Ruby and Candice exchanged bemused looks. Milford replaced the panel and pocketed the tool before looking up at their blank faces. “You have no idea what I’m talking about do you?”
Ruby understood a little. “You’ve built an artificial brain using the eyes of dead people to build stable neural pathways.”
A thin smile appeared on Milford’s lips.
Ruby continued. “But why would you do that? What are these connections you mentioned?”
“This is the InfiniteYou project?” Candice asked.
Devan smiled then spread his arms wide. “Once the Infinity Mainframe is live, it will connect to all HALO users. That is the InfiniteYou network. But the HALOs are smarter than ever. They will transmit a signal from the Mainframe that will switch on the users’ telepath centres.”
Ruby wanted to reach out and grab hold of the railing. “Your network will create telepaths?”
“With over forty million subscribers, we’ll be the first world nation of telepaths.”
Ruby couldn’t quite take in everything that Devan was saying.
Candice was shaking her head slowly from side to side. “You’re crazy.”
“Not at all,” he replied. “I’m giving us the advantage. I’m saving us.”
“No government will allow this to happen,” Ruby argued. “It’s bad enough they have teeps to deal with at all.”
“You see it as a problem. Natural born telepaths are a problem?”
Ruby shook her head. “No one was born a telepath. If that were true we’d have had telepaths for thousands of years. Something happened. They were made.”
“And yet, you resist the idea that more should be made.”
“But, what you’re suggesting. A whole country of telepaths—no one will allow it.”
“They won’t have a choice. As soon as I send the signal, it will be too late.”
All the colour had drained from Candice’s face. “Don’t do it. Devan, it’s crazy. You’ll start a war.”
Devan shook his head. “On the day I announced plans to build the world’s first centre for telepaths, a refuge if you like, our government tried to kill me. They’re terrified of telepaths. Always have been, always will be. When the world’s first telepath emerged, the government fell into a tailspin. What the hell were they going to do now? How could they keep their secrets safe from the likes of them?
“But at the time, they didn’t understand how many telepaths they were dealing with. It could have been a genetic fluke. A random mutation that caused the telepathy gene to get switched on. After a while, more and more telepaths were discovered.”
“Hunted,” Candice said through gritted teeth.
“Yes. They were. And still no one knew where they were coming from, but they needed to quell the stories that this was some kind of plague, a virus of sorts. So, like any self-respecting government, they concocted a cover story. They blamed the mutation on the biogenetic weapons used in the Three Day War. That had its own public relations problems, however.”
Ruby interjected. “This history lesson is all very interesting—”
Devan raised a hand at Ruby and silenced her. “When I decided to build OsMiTech headquarters in Southport, no one understood why I was building so far away from London. Commentators assumed it had something to do with keeping distance between myself and the government, but it had nothing to do with that. I was drawn here. I didn’t know why, but something was pulling me here. For years. But one night, after visiting Milford at the clinic, I heard the voice that had been trying to contact me all this time. It came from here. Right where you’re standing. The voice came from the tombs.”
Ruby held her tongue. That prickling on the back of her neck that she’d felt ever since stepping foot inside this complex; the curious sense of another presence. The feeling of life in the shadows. That word, repeated.
“You contacted someone inside the tombs?” Candice said suspiciously.
Devan shook his head. “The place was abandoned. I don’t know for how long it’s been empty, but when I first found the entrance, I don’t think anyone had crossed the threshold in decades. The place was dead.”
Devan strolled around the control gantry, eyes raised to the upper reaches of the cavernous space, staring into the air. “It wanted me. Needed me to be complete.”
“What needed you?”
“The tombs. Can’t you feel it? It’s alive.”
Ruby wanted to laugh. Part of her found Devan’s speech utterly bizarre, but that was countered by the feelings she’d experienced first-hand. A sentience.
Candice’s arms were folded against her chest and she had edged around the control space to stand closer to Ruby. “The tombs is alive?”
“In a sense.”
“And it talks to you?”
Devan’s thin smile evaporated, and he shook his head like a teacher admonishing an unruly pupil. “You won’t understand, Ms Parry, so save yourself the bother and just keep it shut.”
“And what about you, Milford?”
“What about me?” Milford asked.
“You feel it too? Hear the voices?”
Milford looked put out by the question. His arms dropped to his sides. “You mock him because you’re afraid of what will happen when he’s proven to be right. You’re trying to undermine him because you can’t bear the thought of what life might be like if he’s the last one standing. Oh, he’s right about the war. A war is coming. If we do nothing, it will be upon us before we know it. But we can stop it, or lessen the impact at least. It’s the secrets. That’s the fundamental constant. In a world with telepaths, there can be no more secrets. No reasons to lie, to cheat, to prove oneself better than anyone else, because telepat
hs see through all that. Destroy the secrets…”
“And the war won’t come?” Ruby finished. “That’s bullshit.”
“You’re not interested in stopping a war,” Candice said. “You’re just looking to make the most money from whatever you have at your disposal.”
Devan looked surprised by this dissent. “I’m already the richest man in the country. What do I want with money?”
“You’re not the most powerful, though. The machine brings you power. It’s what you’ve always wanted. It’s why you left Sweden. Looking for something, some way to get the power you need to fill that void in your life.”
“Shut your mouth,” Devan said a furious anger trembling his voice. “You know nothing about me.”
“What’s the matter, scared of the truth? I thought the truth would save us all.”
The gun raised, snapped to aim at Candice. “Shut up.”
Ruby saw the quivering muscles in his face, the sweat on his forehead. He would pull the trigger and there was nothing she could do about it.
An alarm sounded on one of the control panels. The blue lights flickered, went out and when they came back a second later, the room was bathed in a new sickly white glow. Milford hurried to the instruments and pawed at the controls.
“What’s happening?” Devan shouted.
Derelict
Ruby heard the voice in her head. Candice was staring straight at Ruby, but the voice hadn’t been hers.
Derelict
Devan was shouting at Milford, moving to stand by his side, punching up new images on the control panel screens. “Try the sensor diagnostic. It’s been wrong before.”
Milford knocked Devan’s hands away from the controls. “Leave this to me. I know what’s wrong.”
Devan agreed, but from the pinched expression on his face, he was far from happy about it.
“What’s going on?” Ruby shouted over the noise of the sirens.
Devan raised the gun hand and Ruby left it at that.
Then the alarms stopped and left Ruby with a distracting absence of noise in her ears. The Mainframe’s lights resolved to their usual white gentle pulsing, and Milford straightened, rubbed his hands along the small of his back and turned to Devan. “It would help if you didn’t interfere.”
Ignoring the jibe, Devan asked: “So, what was it? Another glitch in the initialisation matrix?”
Milford shook his head. “Not this time. One of the sensor pods in the pool was being overloaded with signal, it couldn’t redirect and was in danger of bringing the entire cluster down.”
“What did you do?” Devan said.
“Neutralised that pod’s remnants.”
Devan’s frame straightened, and the face became dark with shadows. “What?”
“It was kill a percentage of the biomass or risk a chain reaction. I saved the machine, Devan. No need to thank me.”
“Why did you bring us here?” Candice said, sliding out from behind the computer terminal she’d been leaning against. “You know we won’t let you turn this thing on, so why risk it?”
Ruby was ahead of her though and let her mouth get the better of her. “Those eyes in the pool, they’re not just ordinary eyes are they?”
Devan had a glint in his eye, delighted that Ruby was so sharp. “Any eye will do. But to get the best results, I need a mixture.”
“It’s not just the eyes from the remnant vaults. They’re part of it, but there’s something bigger here.” Ruby grabbed the handrail and looked down into the pool, thinking about Scott Logan’s claims, and the adjustment clinic she’d rescued Candice from. “You need a little something from a telepath to power this telepathic field you’re generating. Ordinary eyes on their own won’t cut it. You’re using telepaths’ eyes as well.” She glanced at Candice and a dark thought crossed her mind as to the real reason Devan had kept her alive.
Devan smirked. “You saw how easily we can lose some of the biomaterial. I’m always on the lookout for more.”
And an even more horrible thought entered Ruby’s mind. “The OsMiTech buildings. They’re more than just refuges for telepaths. You’ve been using them for body parts. Your centres are telepath farms.”
“So dramatic. But, how can I be expected to find employment for all of them? The DRT curtails as much telepath activity as possible, and yet every day we’re registering more and more. Many come in off the streets, ostracised by family and friends, unable to accept their kin’s new abilities. Unwilling to live with someone impossible to keep secrets from. And that’s the great success of OsMiTech. That’s why we’ve got a steady stream of people coming to us; never us to them. People are too stupid to find a way to live with their family when secrets are thrown to the wind. So, they come to us. And some are quite brilliant, they are. So, we find work for them. And some are a little less brilliant. Perhaps, the change was a difficult process for them, made them a little unstable, so we set them up in our hospital wings. But beds are always at a premium, and sometimes we need to help people move out of their beds, whether they want to or not. But they’re still of use to us. They’re always of use to us one way or another.”
Ruby thought of the pool beneath her feet and fought the urge to vomit.
Milford came closer. Close enough that Ruby got a whiff of his personal hygiene problem. “Devan, we’re ready for another test.”
“Perfect. And whilst I have you two here, how about we try out the software update?”
“What are you saying?” Ruby asked, but Devan was already at the controls, setting menus open and dials spinning. The machine made the same strange high-pitching droning that it had a few moments ago.
Devan kept his focus on the readings in front of him. “I’ve delivered the update to your devices. Now I just need to activate the neural interfaces.”
A tingling came from Ruby’s HALO. Too late, she realised what he was talking about. He was using their own HALOs to connect them to the Infinity Mainframe. Panicking, she grasped hold of the ring but it wouldn’t move. It was like her finger had swelled.
“That won’t work,” Milford said, noticing her discomfort. “The rings have always had the ability to lock on to someone. A latent security feature.”
“Stop it!” she shouted at Devan. Candice was trying to get her own ring off without success. Ruby hurried over to her and tried to force the girl’s ring off, but it was tight. Candice yelped as Ruby’s attempts dug the edge of the HALO into her knuckle.
Ruby’s vision flashed in front of her. Tall vertical stripes twisted, there even when she blinked.
Things moved quickly.
Candice darted at Milford, the blocking stim ampule she’d taken from Ruby in hand, and jammed it hard into Milford’s remaining eye.
He screamed.
And then Devan raised his gun, aimed it at Candice’s head, and pulled the trigger.
12:38 PM
A lump of Candice’s head blew off as the bullet ripped through her skull. Ruby screamed and ran towards her comrade.
Ruby caught the girl’s body as it fell and collapsed with her in a heap. Blood and bits of her brain spilt out and painted the floor red.
Devan hurried to Milford who had pulled the ampule from his eye. Blood dribbled from the damaged organ. He whimpered in pain, then shoved Devan aside. “I’m fine. I’m fine.”
“You bastard. There was no need,” Ruby said, “You’ve murdered her.” As gently as she could, Ruby placed Candice’s body back on the floor, trying not to look above the neckline. Her hands were wet, and she wiped them on her clothes.
Devan was by her side, the gun at her head. “Don’t push me.”
Ruby couldn’t bear to look at him.
Milford was hunting for a dressing in a first aid kit he’d pulled off the side of an instrument panel. With muscles that felt like clay, she picked herself up off the floor. “Is this what you’ve become? Once you were a symbol for something this country hadn’t seen in a long time. You represented the hope they’d seen eroded
by decades of successive governments. But, now you’re just a murderer.” Ruby stared at Devan’s cold black eyes. “Your machine can’t be brought online. I won’t allow it.”
“You can’t stop me.”
“If you try to turn the masses into telepaths, you’ll wreak havoc across this country.”
“It’s no more than they deserve.”
“More people will die. You’ll start a war.” Ruby’s stomach dropped. “You want a war. You said as much.”
Devan raised a finger. “No. I said war is inevitable.”
“So you’ll orchestrate it?”
He smiled awkwardly—that hint of schoolboy charm she’d once found cute. “Ruby, telepathy will bring this country to its knees or elevate us to Olympian heights. I intend to be there when we rise above the other nations. Make the world fear us again.”
Ruby shook her head, not believing the tripe she was hearing. She had to shut this place down.
Derelict.
Ruby glanced around her. The voice was louder in here.
Devan had a curious look on his face. A knowing look. “You heard it didn’t you?” There was a tightness to his eyes.
“What is it?”
“It’s the tombs. I told you it called to me. Now it seems, it’s calling to you as well.” He laughed, then banged his fist against his leg. Peering into the dark spaces above them, he shouted. “Why? I’ve done everything you wanted. You don’t need her.” Turning, he lowered his gun and closed his eyes. “I’ve given you so much. Why does it mean so little?”
And that’s the chance that Ruby needed. Keeping her eyes on the gun by his side, she ran and knocked into Devan, snatching the weapon from his hand. Devan didn’t resist. He seemed broken. Scrambling back with the weapon in her hand, she brought it to bear on Devan. The metal felt comfortable in her grip and she gave the trigger the gentlest squeeze, testing the feel of the power she had in her hands.
“Turn it off. Shut it all down,” she commanded with a voice that she hoped sounded more confident than it did in her head.
Devan looked surprised. Milford glared at his partner. Eventually, it was Milford who spoke. “Not going to happen,” he said at last. “I’m not shutting it down.”
The Infinity Mainframe (Tombs Rising Book 3) Page 22